Auburn is a city in Lee County, Alabama, United States. It is the largest city in eastern Alabama with a 2008 population of 56,088. It is a principal city of the Auburn Metropolitan Area, an MSA with a population of 130,516 which, along with the Columbus, Georgia-Alabama MSA and the Tuskegee, Alabama Micropolitan Statistical Area, comprises the greater Columbus–Auburn–Opelika, Georgia—Alabama Combined Statistical Area a region home to approximately 500,000 residents. Auburn is a college town and is the home of Auburn University. Auburn has been marked in recent years by rapid growth, and is currently the fastest growing metropolitan area in Alabama and the nineteenth-fastest growing metro area in the United States since 1990. U.S. News has ranked Auburn in the top ten in its 2009 list of best places to live in United States . The city's unofficial nickname is “The Loveliest Village On The Plains,” taken from a line in the poem “The Deserted Village” by Oliver Goldsmith: “Sweet Auburn! loveliest village of the plain... ”

What is intellectual property law?

Under intellectual property law, owners are granted certain exclusive rights to a variety of intangible assets, such as musical, literary, and artistic works; discoveries and inventions; and words, phrases, symbols, and designs. Common types of intellectual property include copyrights, trademarks, patents, industrial design rights and trade secrets. Intellectual property law involves advising and assisting individuals and businesses on the development, use, and protection of intellectual property -- which includes ideas, artistic creations, engineering processes, scientific inventions, and more.

Answers to intellectual property law issues in Alabama

A patent is a document issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) that grants a monopoly for a limited...

Some types of inventions will not qualify for a patent, no matter how interesting or important they are. For example...

In the context of a patent application, an invention is considered novel when it is different from all...

Once a patent is issued, it is up to the owner to enforce it. If friendly negotiations fail, enforcement involves...

Patent protection usually ends when the patent expires.

For all utility patents filed before June 8, 1995,...

Typically, inventor-employees who invent in the course of their employment are bound by employment agreements that...

On its own, a patent has no value. A patent becomes valuable only when a patent owner takes action to profit from...

Copyright protects works such as poetry, movies, video games, videos, DVDs, plays, paintings, sheet music, recorded...

For works published after 1977, the copyright lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years. However, if the work...

The term "trademark" is commonly used to describe many different types of devices that label, identify, and...